Scales of the Leaf
by Lord Geryon
Summary: 6 year old Uzumaki Naruto has a plan, and the first step of that plan is simple, almost impossible goal. But, that plan is interrupted by a round, mosscovered rock.


Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

: text : are mental messages Naruto receives.

---

Huff.

Huff.

Huff.

Naruto ran, ran like his life depended on it. He ran until his sides hurt, he ran until it felt like his legs were going to fall off, and still he continued to run.

Why? A description motivated him.

A description of a ninja motivated him.

"A ninja is a protector, fast and strong." The Sandaime Hokage, also known as Ojiji, said it.

Huff.

Huff.

Huff.

A hard push with one leg, and Naruto dodged a tree.

He couldn't quit, not yet.

He hadn't run enough; this was only his seventh lap.

He ran his seventh lap around Konoha, a distance approaching two miles.

The six year old blond refused to quit, until at least the tenth lap was behind him.

Huff.

Huff.

Huff.

---

When Naruto could go no further, he stopped in the forested section of Konoha, north of the Hokage Monument.

His knees threatening to give out, he stumbled to a round, moss covered rock and sat.

The air he gulped felt cold and sweet, and his lungs burned like he sucked down flame instead.

His young heart thudded painfully in his chest, his legs refused to move any more, and his hands shook. But he felt happy and he grinned deliriously.

Naruto beat his record of the day before, of little over ten and half laps. He ran twelve today, plus a little extra.

Naruto had set a goal to run an even hundred without stopping; he had made a promise and Naruto Uzumaki never went back on his word.

It didn't matter to him that the one he promised was himself; a promise is a promise.

He would do it if it was the last thing he did.

Someone might respect him for sheer stubbornness, at least, if he achieved his goal.

That alone made the effort worth it, but Naruto's plans didn't stop at the achievement of his goal, they continued on in an effort to make him fast and strong.

: powerful :

"Yeah, I will be powerful," Naruto muttered aloud.

The blond boy's heart had slowed some; his legs ached a little less, the fire in his lungs burned low.

: grow :

: grow strong :

"I will grow strong," Naruto affirmed, excitement dulling his pains even more. "I will be fast and strong; I will be the ultimate : dragon : ninja!"

His promised reaffirmed, Naruto hopped to his feet and took off at a flat run. The day was still young; he would run another five laps.

Promise.

---

The rock he used for his seat trembled once, then stilled.

---

Two days later, Naruto ran his 16th consecutive lap around his home village.

He was insanely happy; he had solid improvement every day. His goal would be achieved in no time at this rate, and he could move on to more strenuous exercises.

He planned to grow strong.

He refused to fail.

He had promised.

He leapt over a round, moss covered rock and continued his mad sprint.

---

Eleven days after he began his curriculum, Naruto returned to sit atop a round, moss covered rock in the forest. He liked it here; it was peaceful.

He was not empty handed. He was carrying a takeout container of ramen from the greatest ramen stand in Konoha, and hence, the world: Ichiraku's.

Today he had decided to celebrate achieving one fifth of his goal, hence the ramen.

Earlier, he had completed 21 consecutive laps around Konoha.

He was in awe of his own accomplishment. Even at six years old, he knew what he had done so far was something to be proud of.

Snapping apart his chopsticks and opening the container, he dug in.

: soon :

"I'll be done soon," Naruto said, talking to himself around a mouthful of noodles. "I'll accomplish it, and then I : we: can move on to harder things." He nodded, swallowing his food. "Soon."

He continued to eat, sitting atop his rock.

---

Clouds, great and gray, covered the sky. A light drizzle fell from the sky, just enough to coat everything in wet, not enough to impede visibility.

Naruto didn't mind, it was a little better this way.

A cool breeze rustled through the trees as he ran; the water and sweat on his face chilled.

He plotted his route through forest, across streams, over logs, and by a round rock, but his route lacked shade for most of its length and running on such a cool day was welcome and refreshing.

It proved useful too; he already beat his accomplishment yesterday.

Lap thirty one, and he knew he had the energy to go at least one more.

He ran on.

---

The moon shone brightly through the treetops, a silver disk hung in a pitch black velvet sky.

Naruto ran, trees seemingly moving out of his way.

Sleep had eluded him tonight; he had felt the need to get out.

So here he was, moving freely, unconfined.

He recognized this part of the forest, even in the dark. His favorite rock was coming up…

There, sitting in a small, moon-lit patch of fallen leaves.

He smiled and slowed his run into a jog, then a walk, and finally stopped by his rock. This was where he was supposed to be, he could feel it.

It never occurred to Naruto to question why he felt like he should be here; he simply did, and that was all the unsubtle youth needed.

Opting not to sit on his rock, he sat on the ground, his back against the rock.

He looked around at the dark, quiet trees, and then up at the moon; the quick sprint from his apartment hadn't even quickened his breathing.

He contemplated running more; it could only help his goal. But no, he didn't feel like moving from his spot against his rock.

He leaned his head back, resting it against the rock.

He felt comfortable in this position, he could almost…

The rock trembled.

… sleep.

: time :

A loud crack splintered the air, and Naruto leaned forward.

It was time, he knew.

The rock shivered, violently, and a tearing noise came from it. A split appeared in the top.

Naruto turned to regard it, in the moonlight; his eyes were half-lidded and his pupils glowed with a faintly green-tinged light. His expression showed calm unusual to the hyperactive boy; a patience uncharacteristic of him.

"Come out," he murmured, his voice soothing.

: yes :

The split at the top of the rock widened in another violent tremor, and the entire left side of the rock fell away, revealing a dark hollow. Out came a serpentine form, long and sinuous, wings tucked back.

It, she Naruto suddenly knew, climbed the still solid part of the egg, and turned atop it, facing him.

She spread her wings, flapping them once, and her eyes glowed greenish white as she regarded him. Her pale green scales showed grey in the moonlight.

He smiled.

"Hakari."

: partner :

---

"Nrgggh," Naruto said eloquently, throwing his arm over his eyes to save them from the evils of the sun.

A weight pressed against his chest, he decided it was his blanket and ignored it. Speaking of a blanket, he felt kind of warm. And didn't he keep his curtains pulled in his bedroom?

Lifting his arm, he opened one eye and immediately regretted it when sunlight speared directly into the sapphire orb. Squinting against the painful glare, it took a minute for him to view his surroundings.

"Huh?" He found himself on the ground, in the middle of the forest. How'd he get here? Last he remembered he had crawled into bed.

: awake:

Yeah, he was awake now, alright.

Sitting up, the weight on his chest slid off. It landed in his lap, and hissed at him.

: rude:

He looked down, and stared. His lap was the resting place of a… : dragon, dummy :

"Dragon," he echoed stupidly.

She perched on his knee, sitting on her back legs and holding the rest of hre body upright, her tail curling around her back feet. She regarded him with a flat reptilian gaze, but it somehow carried a sense of amusement.

He had gone crazy, he must have. Maybe he had ran too much?

: no. not crazy. joined. :

"Are… are you talking to me?" Confusion dominated his tone of voice. Animals didn't talk, he knew that. That thought earned him an indignant hiss.

: not animal! dragon:

She stuck her slender, forked tongue out at him.

: and yes, talking. :

"Uh… ok." He raised his hand, and scratched his head. "How are you talking to me?"

: you and I joined. :

"Joined? What is that? Is that why you can talk?"

He didn't know dragons could sigh, but he learned when she did.

: joined. bonded. paired. :

She hesitated.

: married: The tone was meek, unsure.

Naruto simply blinked, then shook his head slowly. "I, uh, don't know what that word means, but I think I understand what you mean. Why are we joined?"

He discovered she had eyelids when she blinked.

: just are. :

"Oh. Um… I think I need to go talk to Ojiji," he murmured, but he couldn't take her eyes off her, he found himself fascinated by watching her. All the little movements she made, a slight adjustment of a wing, the way the tip of her tail twitched, the way her head moved as she talked to him. Naruto didn't know the word, but if he did, he would describe her as beautiful.

: ojiji: She stared at him, tilting her head to one side.

"Uh, yeah, the Hokage?"

: don't know. : With that, she looked around, seemingly dismissing it as unimportant, before she turned her glowing gaze back on him. : food :

"No, no I'm not food," he yelled, alarmed, trying to scoot away. She simply dug in her rear claws - which were sharp as he discovered - to keep from falling off. He winced in pain. She had drawn blood, he knew it. When he stopped moving, she relaxed her claws, eliciting another wince when they pulled out of his flesh.

: dummy. you not food. I hungry. : She spoke chidingly, making him feel ridiculous for thinking it.

"Oh, yeah, okay… you know, I bet Ojiji would have some good food for us!" Naruto declared, scratching his head in embarrassment. He started to get up, and then hesitated. "You can't stay on my lap though." He thought for a second. "Here, climb up on my shoulder. You can sit there." Naruto patted the appropriate area.

She regarded it, and then sank down to stand on all four legs. Walking across his lap - he noted with relief that she didn't use her claws doing it - she climbed his shirt, hooking her claws into the material and not his skin.

Once she attained her perch, she positioned herself as she had been on his knee, sitting on her rear legs and upright. Her tail, though, slid across the back of his neck and hooked around it.

He giggled at the touch on his neck, and scrunched up his shoulders. "That tickles!"

: tickles: Her voice carried a note of curiousness.

"Yeah, it tickles… um, it means it makes me feel weird and want to laugh," he explained and looked at her.

She looked at something else, directly in front of him. Naruto turned his gaze in that direction, and saw a squirrel that regarded the both of them from a low branch.

Naruto acted without thought and rolled the shoulder forward that she sat on. "Go, Hakari."

She leapt off his shoulder - he winced again, he needed a shoulder pad or something – and spread her wings. The squirrel tried to get away, it did, but Hakari closed the gap too swiftly.

It let out a brief scream when she swooped, and it ended. The squirrel dangled from Hakari's claws and she flew back to Naruto to perch on his shoulder again, dead animal in claw.

Naruto, meanwhile, blinked in confusion and didn't pay attention, even when her weight landed on his shoulder. How had he known her name?

: told you. joined. : The exasperation in her voice caused him to grumble.

How was he supposed to know what being joined meant?

: told you. :

"Yeah, well, you didn't tell me I'd know your name," he yelled. He crossed his arms and pouted.

He didn't pay attention when she dug into her meal, either. Nor did he pay attention to the mess she made of his jacket.

"I'm gonna go talk to Ojiji," Naruto declared. He stood which jostled Hakari and made her dig into his shoulder again. "And ow, dammit! Quit it, that hurts!"

: sorry. : She apologized.

"You can eat on the way," he muttered and started walking. He walked carefully; He didn't want her gouging more holes in his shoulder.

She had a pretty name, he mused as he walked, ignoring the crunches of a squirrel breakfast. Almost as pretty as she is.

: thanks. : Her tongue, wet with blood and saliva, darted out and tickled his neck.

"Ahhh! Quit it!"

She laughed.

---

Naruto had grown somewhat used to cold looks from the villagers over the years, but he found himself confused by the looks he got walking through town to the Hokage Tower.

The looks weren't cold and he couldn't place them.

He had no experience in recognizing looks of curiosity and confusion, after all.

Hakari didn't pay attention to the looks or much of anything else; she had draped herself across Naruto's shoulders and over the back of his neck to take a nap after her meal.

Sarutobi Sasuke, God of Shinobi, Sandaime Hokage, battled his life-long enemy alone, without hope of surcease, support, or even victory.

SLAM.

"Ojiji!" Naruto bounded into the room as the door impacted the wall and bounced back. Naruto was saved from a door in the face by his energetic nature carrying him several steps into the room.

Sarutobi didn't look up from his paperwork, and just raised a hand in greeting. "Hello, Naruto."

Hakari, jostled awake by Naruto sudden movements, saved herself from a tumble to the floor and dug her claws into Naruto's jacket and incidentally his shoulder.

"Ahh, dammit, your claws are sharp," Naruto grumped, wincing. He reached up to pry Hakari's talons from his flesh, but she relaxed her grip before he could and sat up.

: your fault: she told him with a sniff.

Sarutobi, confused by Naruto's comment, looked up at the boy, immediately spotting the creature on the boy's orange clad shoulders and staring. He wasn't alarmed by the presence of blood since Naruto had noticed it before his visit and had stopped by his apartment to change jackets, with much grumbling.

Naruto didn't notice the attention as he argued with his dragon.

"Was not! I didn't make you poke holes in me," he countered with a yell.

: was too. almost fell: she huffed.

"You shouldn't have fallen asleep on me, then!"

: was sleepy: she stated, matter-of-factly.

"Didn't have to use me as a bed." he sulked.

: didn't want to leave you: she replied, her voice pouty.

Naruto didn't have a response to that.

"Er… Naruto, care to tell me what's going on," Sarutobi asked the boy, seeing a lull in the seemingly one-sided conversation he had just witnessed.

Reminded that he and Hakari weren't the only ones in the room, Naruto blinked momentarily. Why had he come here again? "Oh, yeah, um–" He trailed off, pondering how to start. "Well… I don't know!" Naruto pouted.

"I see," Sarutobi said, and didn't at all. "Who is your… friend there?" He gestured to the dragon perched on Naruto's shoulder.

"Oh! This is Hakari, Ojiji." Naruto turned his head to look at Hakari from the corner of his eye. "This is Ojiji, Hakari, the Hokage."

Mutually introduced, Hakari and Sarutobi regarded each other in silence momentarily.

: old. : Hakari made the first comment.

"Yeah, he's ancient," Naruto agreed. "But, he knows lots of stuff!"

Sarutobi grimaced at the jab at his age, and cleared his throat. "Naruto, I am curious, is Hakari a dragon?"

"Yep!" Naruto paused. "Or that's what she says." Hakari bit his earlobe for that one.

Sarutobi just sat there thinking for a long moment and ignored Naruto's indignant yell and subsequent bout of cursing. A dragon. No dragons have been seen for longer than he had been alive, not even rumors of one. And here was one, contentedly sitting on the shoulder of the container of the Kyuubi and village pariah. He felt a headache coming on.

"Naruto, perhaps you should tell me how you came to meet Hakari," Sarutobi suggested.

Naruto, rubbing the bitten body part and wincing, proceeded to tell Sarutobi of his training regiment, his spot in the forest, and waking up that morning with his new companion.

Hakari, meanwhile, had decided to resume her interrupted nap and draped herself over Naruto's shoulders again.

"I see," Sarutobi muttered, his mind analyzing this new data. He felt he needed more, and asked, "Can Hakari talk, Naruto? You talk to her as if she can."

Naruto looked confused at the question. Hadn't Ojiji heard her before? "Uh… yeah? She was talking when I came in here."

Sarutobi nodded at the response, and thought a bit more before he replied. "You say she talks, but I haven't heard her say anything."

"But she talks!" Naruto shrugged his shoulder, jostling Hakari who opened an eye. "Say something!"

: wouldn't hear me: she murmured drowsily.

"What'dya mean, he wouldn't hear you?"

: can only talk to you. :

"Uh… but I hear you just fine, why can't Ojiji?" Naruto was confused more than he ever had been. If somebody talked, everybody around could hear them, right?

: not joined with him. joined with you. only you. : Hakari closed her eye and proceeded to fall back asleep with a speed that would make a cat jealous.

"Oh." Naruto looked thoughtful at that.

Sarutobi, who hadn't heard the explanation for obvious reasons, asked, "What does she say, Naruto?"

"She said that she can only talk to me cause she joined with me," Naruto relayed, still thoughtful.

Sarutobi hmm'ed and remarked, "I notice she doesn't move her mouth when she speaks to you."

Naruto's thoughtful expression faded, and he blinked. He tried to think back, of the conversations he had with Hakari since he woke up that morning. He was surprised to find out he couldn't recall her mouth ever moving when she spoke. "How come, Ojiji?"

"You said she spoke of being joined with you?"

Naruto nodded.

"Then, my best guess is that she does not speak at all. Instead, it seems to be telepathy," Sarutobi explained. "This joining she spoke of sounds like a bond between man and animal, similar to what the Inuzuka have with their dogs, which is why it seems I wouldn't be able to hear her."

"Better be glad she's asleep, Ojiji," Naruto remarked. "She got mad at me for calling her an animal."

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow at that.

"And, uh… what's te-le-pa-thy?" Naruto spoke the strange word slowly to make sure he got it right.

"Telepathy is speaking mind to mind with someone else." Seeing Naruto's confusion, Sarutobi asked, "Since this morning, has she responded to something you may have though but not said?"

Naruto thought and then nodded. "Yeah, she tickled me when I thought that she was pretty."

Sarutobi smiled a bit at that, but continued. "Then it seems that telepathy is the answer." A pause, then he sighed. "It seems that the fates are determined to give you an interesting life, Naruto."

Naruto tilted his head quizzically. "Huh?"

"Dragons are legends, Naruto, nobody has ever seen one until today. If word gets out that a dragon lives in Konoha, many people will come to see it." Sarutobi stood and walked over to stare out the window. "And, if it becomes known that the dragon belongs to a 6 year old boy, many greedy people will try to steal Hakari away from you."

"Let them try." Naruto's voice very suddenly was not childish in the least, it sounded harsh.

Sarutobi turned to look at Naruto and the boy's pupils glowed with the same light as the eyes of the suddenly awake dragon on his shoulder. Interesting, Sarutobi thought to himself as the boy glared at him.

"Hopefully, I can prevent that," Sarutobi said.

"How?" Naruto no longer glared, but his eyes still glowed.

Sarutobi smiled at the young legend-to-be. "How would you like to become my apprentice?"

------

So, a new story from me, huh?

And, for the record, all my other stories are on hiatus, likely dead.


End file.
